


In Which Cap Has a Choice

by AnonymousAutumn



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Fix-It, Fuck You Marvel, Gen, Just Friendship, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Spoilers, THIS IS MY FUCK YOU, also i have stucky in mind while reading this but, come on it's tagged as post endgame what do you expect, i guess, it's pretty gen, not really stucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 21:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18668311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousAutumn/pseuds/AnonymousAutumn
Summary: [SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS:ENDGAME]...Steve Rogers’s breath hitches when he looks up.Peggy Carter.





	In Which Cap Has a Choice

**Author's Note:**

> I literally wrote this right after I watched Endgame, you guys. This is my actual, honest to God first Avengers fic, so please criticize me if you want. But damn, I'm so fucking pissed at that damn ending, so here's my damn take on it.

He’s done it. He’s put the stones back where it belongs, and now… he’s going to come ba--

Steve Rogers’s breath hitches when he looks up.

Margaret Elizabeth Carter.

Peggy Carter.

Steve can’t help but sigh as he looks through the window. Oh, God, Peggy… how he misses her. Her hair, her youthful, gorgeous, unforgettable face, Peggy who has always held his heart, Peggy, Peggy, Peggy… He reaches for his pocket where he knows his compass is; his compass, which will always point to Peggy. His heart, his love.

 _Get a life, Rogers_ , Steve thinks to himself. How easy is it to just… not go back? To just stay here, with Peggy, have that dance he owes her, and not get frozen for seventy-odd years, feeling out of place, out of time, and never fitting in. He can stay. He can just… grow old with Peggy… together, the two of them, maybe have some kids...

But then, at the corner of his eyes, he saw someone and his ears hear someone laughing and he turns in reflex, just a glance, but what he sees stops his breath. 

It’s James Buchanan Barnes. 

Short-haired, cocky smirk, uniformed Bucky. Same old Bucky, currently laughing with some other military members, over some joke, probably… it’s just Bucky, his best friend, had always been, will always be. It’s just Bucky.

But… 

But…

_Bucky._

What will happen to him if Steve… doesn’t come back?

Steve nearly whimpers at the thought. HYDRA. Oh, no, dear God, Bucky will fall through that train, lost his arm, be captured by HYDRA, used as the Winter Soldier, brainwashed and trauma-filled….

And if Steve…

If Steve chooses Peggy….

No one will come for Bucky.

_I’m with you til the end of the line._

Oh, God. What should he… what should he… 

The love of his life, who _died_ , he saw her old in the hospital, remembers how he talks with Peggy in that hospital room, he _carried her coffin_ , for God’s sake, he remembers sitting in that church, Nat coming for him, Nat, oh… Nat…

Steve glances back at Peggy.

Oh, how his heart longs for her. _Be selfish just this one time,_ he can hear his heart says. _Just this once. Stop saving people, stop… this once… won’t hurt…._

But the memory of the past… no, the future… it comes back and haunts him.

He remembers his talks with those people.

His own words, telling them to move on with life.

_Move on._

It’s so hard. He holds back a sob as he stares discreetly at Peggy, who is shaking her head, doing her paperwork, and... Oh, God. It’s so hard to do that, he can’t move on, he can’t, he can’t, he… can’t he be selfish just this one time….

Just…

This once…

Steve takes a deep breath. Okay. Sorry, Sam. Sorry, Bruce. Sorry… Buck…

.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.

_No._

No, he can’t. He can’t. 

Steve carri _ed_ Peggy’s _coffin_ , already. Peggy’s _dead_. To live with her means to lose his best friend, and not just by dying. It’s too late. Steve already knows Bucky isn’t dead. Isn’t going to die. Steve knows Bucky will show up one day, seventy years in the future, brainwashed and traumatized, hunted down by the authorities and-- and when Tony finds him because _he will_ , Bucky will die alone in the arms of his other friend, no one saving him, all seventy years in the future… 

And if Steve chooses to be with Peggy, he will condemn his best friend’s future.

He can’t do that.

Not when the alternative is let Peggy live, and found SHIELD, and do good, and _be okay_ , generally, even if he owes her a dance.

Not to mention that the world is okay. 

Thanos died. And while a lot of things could’ve been better, it was peaceful. Relatively. Sure, Tony died, Natasha died, but… Strange mentioned the only way, right? Right? So… 

But if Steve doesn’t come back, Bucky, and possibly the world…

Steve Rogers bites his lip. He didn’t even realize that as he thinks, he was still staring at Peggy Carter, the woman who founded SHIELD, the woman who was and is his compass, the woman… who he buried.

The blonde man takes a deep breath, eyes closed as he reminisces what happens in the future. In his past.

He opens his eyes and looks around, before looking back at Peggy Carter and smiles.

It’s not a happy smile, but.

_Sorry, Peggy._

_But you died, and I’ve…_

_I’ve buried you._

He glances at his best friend. Always have been, always will be. Even seventy years after this event he’s watching. 

_I’m with you ‘til the end of the line._

Steve suits up and counts.

3…

2…

1…

_Goodbye, Peggy. I’m sorry._

.  
.  
.

 

“Welcome back, Cap,” Sam greets him and walked up to him as Steve takes his headgear off, but then the dark-skinned man stops in his steps. “Steve? You okay there?”

Oh. Steve immediately wipes his eyes and cheeks. “Yeah,” he croaks out. “I’m okay.” He looks at Bucky, who was just standing there watching him, forehead creasing in worry.

Steve walks to the now long-haired, sort-of handicapped, trauma barely concealed underneath that fair skin and glinting metal arm, and hugs him tight.

“Steve?” Bucky whispers in a mix of worry and confusion, and Steve knows Bruce and Sam are probably also worrying about him, but Steve Rogers can’t care less about that right now. 

“... Til the end of the line,” Steve whispers. “I’m with you ‘til the end of the line.”

“Uh, yeah,” Bucky says, pulling back a bit, brows kitting and frowning. “... Steve. What--”

“Nothing.” Steve pulls back and smiles before looking around. “I’m okay. Good, even.”

And despite the worried and dumbfounded and confused looks his friends, no, his _family_ gives him, he is. Good, that is.

He’s good. 

He’s moved on.

This is where he’s supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy that as much as I enjoy writing it, and believe me when I say I wrote it in pure fucking rage. No betas whatsoever, fuck that. I wrote this in an hour when I'm supposed to be applying for my uni exchange. Fuck you, Marvel, and fuck your ending.


End file.
